DETROIT – Michigan residents have waited in line for hours to get a COVID test and at-home rapid tests have been difficult to find.
Meantime, in other states, getting a COVID test is simple. Other states have also made at-home rapid tests readily available. So why can’t Michigan do the same?
Some states have started putting rapid tests in libraries and other public places so people can walk in, sign their name and walk away with tests. In Connecticut, the governor there announced the state would be sending 3 million tests and nearly 6 million masks home as intensive care units fill up with patients.
Ohio has a library program and according to the health department, they are giving away nearly 4.8 million tests this year. That’s more than all the testing Michigan has done in its programs combined. Tests in Toledo are flying off library shelves.
One library reported that their supplies that used to last them up to three days now last only two hours. They said Michigan residents are crossing the border to get the tests.
Michigan does not have a statewide program for at-home tests. The closest thing is a pilot program for sending tests home with students and staff from three school districts, which so far account for just 120,000 tests.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said the state has taken a different approach to testing and has sent hundreds of thousands of tests to schools, long-term care and corrections facilities as well as community pop-up testing sites. But none have been universally available to the public or sent directly to homes.
A spokesperson for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declined to say whether the state had a plan in the works to make tests more broadly available. Instead, they pointed to a new federal plan to distribute 500 million tests nationwide, saying Michigan would likely get millions of those tests.
When those tests could arrive is unclear.